1   Dream

I dreamt about the mountains of Tibet

and in my dream I flew over these mountains with the dead,

my arms were wings and I was flapping them like a bird –

those alive gazed at me from below,

because I was flying along with ghosts.

Life was beautiful in my dream,

and nature was steeped in purity,

maybe I could not stare at the divine greenness

of the grasslands

or the blue innocence of Koknor – the Blue Lake

because of my sins…

Why is my heart striving for the sky then?

Dreams awaken the divinity of mountains,

in dreams your carnal desires and sins are equal;

the memory of blood awakens

and it floods out of dreams into reality.

The memory of blood.

Rocks of the divine mountain Tien Shan blocked my way

and I could not fly over them,

even dreams are not able to overcome it.

What power or will

was blocking my way with these rocks?

Why did it allow me to fly with ghosts

along the ground

without showing me the way above?

Were these rocks my sins?

2   Reality

The memory of blood floods the reality.

A longing to fly over the mountains does not give up

in the reality either

and it turns into coquetries of a salas girl

dancing a Samarqand dance in Qinhai,

a sort of another divine purity.

It seems to me

it is an ardent longing for the homeland

across a depth of six centuries[1].

3   Finality

Afterwards the memory of blood

and the reality begins to take hold.

O my god!

A song is sung in a hushed voice,

the Tibetans are singing in a chorus

full of sorrow and longing.

Like a bird flying without flapping its wings

they are dancing in pairs,

spreading their arms

in order to fly up

to the mountains and the sky they worship.

And the sky steeps a swan

into a bowl – Qinghai Lake

cradled amid the hosting mountains,

and it shakes the wings of the swan

like guests who are honored to steep their fingers

into a bowl with a drink

and to shake them three times

with gratitude

to Buddha

                 the mountains

                                          and the earth

The sacred sky

which I cannot reach even in my dreams

treads the earth of Tibet.

Translated by the author